1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for the production of frozen desserts.
2. Description of the Related Art
Frozen desserts include ice cream desserts such as ice cream, ice milk and lactice, as well as ice desserts such as ice candy, shaved ice, crushed ice, sherbet and the like, and most of these employ stabilizing agents for various purposes.
The major purpose for using stabilizing agents is to adjust the overrun. In the production steps for some ice cream desserts, ice candy and sherbet, air bubbles are incorporated to form the desired taste texture. By including a suitable amount of a stabilizing agent it is possible to stably incorporate numerous air bubbles during the production steps, to prevent changes occurring during the production steps or during storage, to provide the final product with better overrun properties, and to stabilize the production steps for cost reduction and an improved taste texture.
A second important role for stabilizing agents is that of imparting shape retention by preventing immediate melting of products at ordinary temperature during the processes of distribution and sales of final products and their consumption by consumers.
A third purpose for which stabilizing agents are widely used is to enhance the taste texture and give more body to the products. For example, this includes alteration in the taste texture by imparting thickness and viscosity to ice cream or enhancing ice crystallization for ice candy and sherbet.
In addition to these purposes, stabilizing agents are also used for their function of aiding emulsifying agents such as glycerin fatty acid esters, propylene glycol fatty acid esters and sucrose fatty acid esters, which are used in ice cream to maintain the dispersion of fats and coagulation of fats during freezing, known as demulsification.
As stabilizing agents for frozen desserts there have been commonly used polysaccharides such as guar gum, pectin, tara gum, carob bean gum, tamarind seed polysaccharide, carrageenan, sodium alginate, carboxymethyl cellulose sodium, agar, xanthan gum and gelan gum, as well as gelatin, starch and the like, either alone or in combinations. On the other hand, these conventional stabilizing agents for frozen desserts are also used as gelling agents for jelly, jam and pudding and as thickeners for gravies and sauces. When these substances are used in frozen desserts for such various purposes, it often occurs that the gelling properties and thickening properties affect the taste texture of the final product, and produce such undesirable conditions as gelling and thickening during the production process. In other words, when stabilizing agents have been added to impart such functions, the heavier taste texture due to greater body and viscosity has been unavoidable, whether or not it is desired.
For example, when no stabilizing agent is added to ice candy or sherbet-type products known as ice desserts, the ice crystals become larger, harder and difficult to eat, and therefore stabilizing agents are commonly used to prevent the growth of ice crystals; however, the use of conventional stabilizing agents has resulted in a thickness contributed by the stabilizing agents, and a poorly chewable and heavy taste texture.
Even when conventional stabilizing agents for frozen foods are used as taste texture enhancers, they have not been able to provide body, viscosity and thickness while also giving softness and a refreshing feel, to produce frozen ice desserts with a fragile and light taste texture.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method for the production of frozen desserts that can provide them with the functions of overrun properties and shape retention that are expected for stabilizing agents in frozen desserts without giving the frozen desserts a feeling of heavy body, viscosity and thickness, and that can provide this while also giving softness and a refreshing feel, in order to produce frozen ice desserts with a fragile and light taste texture.
As a result of much diligent research in light of the circumstances described above, the present inventors have completed the present invention upon finding that, by adding water soluble hemicellulose during the frozen dessert production process, it is possible to provide the functions of overrun properties and shape retention that are expected for stabilizing agents in frozen desserts without giving the frozen desserts a heavier taste texture due to the increased body, viscosity and thickness obtained when using conventional stabilizing agents, while also imparting a light taste texture.
In other words, the present invention provides a method for the production of frozen desserts characterized by the addition of water-soluble hemicellulose.